Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com! I'm hoping to have finished viewing every Best Picture nominee within the next five years - only 247 left to go....
Today I'm circling back to the 1980s and a movie I've seen a few times but somehow always forget exactly how it goes. It's the film that put Oliver Stone on the map as a director, the 1986 Best Picture winner Platoon. Starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, and a host of prolific character actors like Keith David and Forest Whitaker, Platoon is loosely based on Stone's own experiences during the Vietnam War. Intended as both a tribute to the men who fought there, and a propaganda-free, warts-and-all portrayal of what it was really like, Stone's screenplay pulls no punches, immersing the audience in the chaotic Hell on Earth that was this quagmire of a war.
Charlie Sheen's character is newly stationed volunteer Chris Taylor, a college dropout who, like so many young men in the 60s, dreamed of being part of something important like their WWII veteran fathers were. The idea of fighting for their country seemed so simple and noble, but the illusion was quickly shattered when they arrived in the sweltering Far East jungle to face an enemy the US government severely underestimated, in service of a nebulous, undefined goal.
Taylor's superior officers are the scarred, austere Staff Sergeant Barnes and the pot-smoking, level-headed Sergeant Elias, two men with opposing wartime philosophies who clash often. Their commanding officer is the bumbling, ineffectual Lieutenant Wolfe (Mark Moses), who essentially defers to Barnes on most issues and isn't well-respected by most of the men. Thus when Barnes unlawfully kills some civilians, it seems no one is in charge and no one will face any consequences. Taylor and the other Elias sympathizers begin to realize this war is anything but noble.
Shot in the Philippines, Platoon makes us see and feel the unforgiving heat, the grit and grime, the aggressive insects, the unruly vegetation, and the nervous exhaustion to which these men were subjected. The cast was put through a backbreaking 30-day regimen supervised by frequent Stone collaborator Dale Dye (who doubles as company commander Captain Harris), which included simulated enemy attacks, limited food rations, and sleep deprivation. The resulting film would be received as one of the most true-to-life depictions of the Vietnam War.
Berenger and Dafoe both shine as what Sheen's character describes as his "two fathers." Barnes is tough as nails, apparently unkillable, and devoid of humanity, while Elias is an accomplished survivor with a strict moral code. Taylor hews much closer to Elias's worldview but picks up lessons from both. The Barnes-Elias power struggle becomes the central story thread, as Elias threatens to report Barnes for his appalling behavior toward civilians.
The battle sequences are pure mayhem, with the enemy generally being shown from the shadows. We only see as much of the North Vietnamese as the American soldiers likely did, and they seemingly come from out of nowhere. But these scenes are staged and shot in such a way that we can still follow the action and the characters. Cinematographer Robert Richardson, at the start of his legendary career, captures the carnage in harrowing, gruesome detail, trapping us deep behind enemy lines so to speak. Platoon is a tough film to watch, but in many ways a vital one to understand the horrors these men lived through. Like Apocalypse Now before it, this film isn't so much ABOUT Vietnam, it IS Vietnam, to borrow a phrase from Francis Ford Coppola.
Platoon took home four Oscars from eight nominations, and became for many THE Vietnam War film (Apocalypse Now is still at the top for me, but this one is probably its runner-up). Its narrative threads are simple and based in the traditional good vs. evil morality play, but its no-holds-barred depiction of the war itself seems to stand among the truest ever captured on film (I can't say based on experience of course, but this seems the consensus from those who can). With his brutal look at one of America's most misguided military endeavors, Oliver Stone would cement himself as a top-shelf director throughout the 80s and 90s. Platoon is a pretty stunning achievement.
I give the film **** out of ****.
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